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Topic: DISABILITY (Read 4168 times)

patient is self pay- called to ask when she would be sending a payment ? She said she had filed for disability and is waiting for a reponse, states she has no money. Would you even send her to collections

Has patient received sufficient billing notices? In other words did the provider make an effort to collect? (3 billing cycles is fine) If so and the provider WANTS to, he can write-off OR send to collections. Purely his call.

If this is a patient that will be returning, then the provider can have the patient sign your financial hardship agreement which you can review within some time. In my opinion only, you don't want to give too many of these perks to a patient who is a regular patient as it tends to set a precedence, I typically recommend collection procedures on high balances for returning patients and then proper dismissal of patient's as per their own policies and procedures. Does your office have a Policies and Procedural manual, if not they should get one, that will answer 90% of your questions!

As a biller/practitioner's wife/patient, I always try hard to put myself in everyone's shoes.

PMRNC is absolutely right regarding office policies and procedures, when the patient presented for treatment an agreement was made to pay for services rendered. As a responsible person, the patient should be making payments, even if they can not pay in full. I usually regard that as at least making the attempt and that keeps them in good graces.

While I appreciate that many people have financial hardships, the doctor still has bills to pay, if everyone decided not to pay their portion of the bill they wouldn't be in business long.

Does the provider take credit cards? Can the patient pay $5.00, $10.00 something?

You may also want to ask the provider what they would like to do for that PARTICULAR patient, and then shore up the office policies so that, in the future, you would have a sort of scripted response.

Money is always sticky, and some patients will even resort to the "I thought doctor's were supposed to help people, and all they want is money". And that always hurts my feelings.....then makes me mad.

I don't understand why they wait until they've been billed so many times before they mention the position they are in. Don't they know when they came in that they won't be able to pay? Tell the dr so that he/she can decide what to do then, instead of wasting time and money sending statements when they knew they wouldn't respond.

if the pt truely has applied for disability I would think you would be getting a notice from SS requesting the pts charts. Do you have any proof that this pt has applied for disability? I know hard to believe but people try and make you feel sorry for them to get out of paying.. My favorite one is. I"m a single mom with 3 kids. I always say. Oh man I know how hard that is, so am I, what kind of payment arrangements can we make.

My "resolution" this year is any new patients, who have a deductible (I verify benefits while they're here) MUST pay at time of service. At least SOMETHING. We've had too many new patients who come 2-3 times, the doctor is a hero and fixes them, then they decide not to pay. Well, NO MORE!

I actually LOVE the patients who tell you they can't pay it all at once, can they make payments? Then we're right up front, and it never gets icky over money.

Every practice should have both a Policies and Procedures manual as well as a financial hardship policy so that there are NO grey area's. 80% of these type of questions could be answered from the P&P! If you work in an office with neither of these... get on the doctors to have one done ASAP. If you are a medical billing company than include that in your provider responsibility section of your contract. I get a copy of every one of my clients P&P and if they don't have one I give them a quote to create one for them.

I don't understand why they wait until they've been billed so many times before they mention the position they are in. Don't they know when they came in that they won't be able to pay?

No, not necessarily. Most patients think they understand their insurance policies and that they can trust the billing office to send in clean claims. They aren't expecting to be hit with sudden medical bills and they may not have the money to pay them. Times are economically hard for most people.